The Alert Again

Well, we ended up not getting a medevac on Sunday. So I still haven't gotten my first medevac. That's OK, though because today I am on first up and it's supposed to be hotter than hot today, so there's always hope. Good golly! I've gotten worse than a personal-injury attorney.

I'm having a bit of trouble actually viewing my blog right now so I won't be able to respond to comments received in the comments section. I will respond here until the situation has resolved itself.

My nephews want to know what the "ZOOM" button does on the helicopter (I guess it shows up in the picture I posted of the outside air temperature). Well, step on over to "Uncle Spencer's Answers Corner" and learn, young padawans. The zoom button is what we use when we get into trouble and need to go really, really fast. It directs the thrust from our engines out the back of the helicopter and propells us forward like a jet. Just like Airwolf! OK, that's a complete lie. I'm sorry. The truth is that the zoom button does...are you ready?...ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! That's right. I can hit that button all day long and nothing will happen except I might be put on some forced R&R. The Navy used a one-size-fits-all approach when they put the displays into our cockpits so there are actually quite a few buttons that are used in other platforms, but have no use in our helicopter. We can zoom in and zoom out on the display, but we use the page up and page down keys to do that -- why would we use a "ZOOM" key for that, right? Even then, it's not that exciting because we don't have any moving maps or video cameras or FLIRs or anything to zoom in on. Sorry it's not more exciting than that, so I'll just stick with my first explanation -- the supersonic helicopter! Note: if anyone wants an in depth and extremely dry discourse on why a supersonic heliopter is actually impossible you need but ask. I am always here to serve. Not everyone at once, please.

By the way, I would like to thank everyone for their support while I'm out here. Yesterday I walked out of here with 4 packages and a huge grin on my face. I will be mailing thank you letters out later today but wanted to thank you all more publicly and immediately. My Blow-Pop woes have certainly been resolved. Thanks to everyone for the emails and prayers and everything, also.

I've been asked if I have a lot of contact with the local population out here. The truth is that I have almost none (except for the civilians that work on base). If you draw a square and label it "Nowhere" we are quite literally in the middle of it. Granted, in this desert there is quite a bit of nowhere to be had. Kuwait city looks lovely from about 500' up. Eventually hopefully I'll get a somewhat more intimate view.

Well, that's all for this session. Keep those questions coming and I promise to answer truthfully at least 40% of the time. Give or take.

Standing The Alert

Today is my first time standing the medevac alert. I'm the second-up copilot which means that we get the second medevac of the day (or we go out dual-ship with the first-up helicopter in the event that we go somewhere where people might not like us). There was a medevac earlier today so right now we have the chicken -- the next one is ours. I kind of hope that we don't get called out on one right now because A: that would mean that somebody is hurt; and B: it's nighttime and I'd like to be able to get some pictures from my first evac. We'll see what happens. We've still got the watch for another 12 hours.

The main disadvantage to being on the alert is that my one kilometer triangle world is suddenly reduced to 200 ft. That's how far away from the helicopter we can be at any point during our alert. Thankfully, they have set up a trailer for us that has a sleeping room with beds and a room with a TV and DVD player and books. So the time passes quickly enough. Tomorow is a day off for me, so basically I get to hang out in my trailer. Sounds like fun, eh?

Hottest Day...So far.

Those are the outside air temperature guages from the helicopter. The top one is on our windscreen with a little probe that sticks out to measure the temp. The other one is our navigation display. 129 degrees farenheit. That was what it was outside. I can assure you that it was not that pleasant inside. The T-shirt I was wearing when we flew is covered in salt. Luckily we were just doing a maintanance flight to check on some electrical problems so we weren't in the helo for very long. Nonetheless, when we got back I literally was able to wring the sweat out of my helmet liner. At least the wind wasn't blowing the sand into my face today.

I'm Qualified!

Well, last night I did get out flying. We just went a little bit north of the airfield and did about 30 landings out in the desert. Helicopters are great! We don't need a big corps of engineers to set up landing sites for us. We just need to know if it's flat enough, big enough, and are there any trees or hazards in the area. Luckily for us, we happen to be surround by about a million square miles of such places.

What this means is that now I can stand the medevac alerts. So I can actually go flying on real medevacs instead of just training hops. I'll be sure to update you when I get my first one. Actually, the tradition here is that they make the new pilot dress up in a giant chicken suit the squadron owns (too long to explain) and go out into the base to Starbucks or someplace like that after his first medevac. I'm not really sure how that all started, but I'll roll with it.

Just in case you were wondering, it is 123 degrees outside right now. Fun times.

The Votes Are In

Well, it looks like my moustache will be short lived. Actually, I'm not that disappointed. Truth to tell, it's a little bothersome. It gets wet when I try to drink, it's a pain to trim, and my room-mate says that it tickles when I kiss him goodnight. Just kidding. It's not that hard to trim. So it will be shaved shortly. There are a couple more things that I need to do with it before it comes completely off. The "Dictactor" picture still needs to happen. Speaking of dictators, what should I do with it for the last day I have it? Several of the aircrew here think I should shave it "toothbrush" style (a la a certain infamous dictator) but I think that might be in somewhat bad taste. So what I'm thinking is maybe shave all but the last 1/8th of an inch or so over my lip (kind of a sleazy latin-lover style). The other idea is to shave the center and then have two very thin halves angling off of my nose (tough to describe, I guess the closest thing would be two check-marks under my nose). Any suggestions?

Anyway, I am scheduled to fly again tonight. Barring some unforseen happening, I should be qualified by the end of the night...hmmm....that sounds familiar, somehow. I'm pretty tired today. Going on about 4 hours of sleep last night. Time to break out the Red Bull. This morning I tried to pass some time by watching "The Thin Red Line". If you haven't seen it, don't. I got about 40 minutes into it and was so bored that I was willing to go attack Guadalcanal just for some action. Wow. What a waste.

Back to the Heat / Help Needed

Well, the few mild days (temps below 110) last week are now over. Today the wind is blowing at about 40 knots and the temperature is around 115. Walking to the chow hall I felt like Dorothy is some weird re-make of "The Wizard of Oz". "Aunty Em, Aunty Em a twister's a-comin'....and my dress just spontaneously burst into flames!" Thankfully there were no flying monkeys....I hate flying monkeys.

I was planning on writing yesterday since I was standing another one of my beloved 12-hour watches, but we got called on a couple of medevacs that turned into logistical nightmares. We got them done, though. That's what counts. One thing I like about our mission is that we will save whoever needs saving. Since I've been here our helicopters have flown U.S. Soldiers, U.S. civilians, one British woman (the one I was on. Not sure if she was military or civilian), and even suspected insurgents. Our corpsmen (medics) put just as much effort into saving the lives of our enemies as they do into saving the lives of our men. For that they should be commended. The dustoff motto is "When I have your wounded..." They truly live by that.

For those of you wondering if I am a qualified medevac pilot yet, the answer is no. I got my flight knocked out, but they would like me to have a few more unprepared landings at night on NVGs. It takes a little while to get used to landing a helicopter when all you can see for the last 10 feet or so down is blowing dust. Go figure. A little scary. So that should happen in the next couple of nights and by weeks end I'll be moving on up to the majors.

As for the help I need, well it's pretty serious. I was coming off my flight on Saturday night when I realized that I am missing a vital ingredient to my aviation success: my post-flight Blowpops. Ever since I was just a fledgeling flying the T-34C Turbo-Mentor, I have endulged in a Blowpop after my flights. Alas, there are none to be found here. It's amazing I'm even able to get the thing off the ground. Talk about your crises! So if anyone could send me some Blowpops I would very much appreciate it. Flavor doesn't matter (though I think I'll save the watermelon ones for after true medevacs). You may think I'm joking, but I'm not. Pilots in general are somewhat superstitious and helicopter pilots especially. Even aeronautical engineers will tell you that the technical term for how helicopters fly is "magic".

Kind of in combination with that last note, I've had some people tell me that my address is hard to find. So I will post it here for all to see:

LTJG Spencer Allen

2515th NAAD

Camp Beuhring, Kuwait

APO, AE 09330

Why I Fly Helicopters

Tonight was definitely a night to remind me why I fly helicopters. I went out to the boat to do some landing quals out in the gulf (being as how that's what Navy Pilots do - land on boats). Unfortunately, as we were heading out (I should specify that I was riding in the back out to the boat and not actually flying) we got a call that a girl on one of the nearby ships had appendicitis and needed to be evac'd to a hospital. That's what we do, so my training was off. Bummer there, but when they put her in the helicopter I was reminded of all the good we can do. I even ended up holding the IV bag. Maybe I wasn't on the controls -- this time -- but it still felt really, really good to be there helping out.

Maybe I didn't notice it when I posted it, but when I logged on to the blog this time it struck me. Does anyone else think that the picture of me with the 'stache looks like it should be on some poster of some third-world dictator?

Le Moustache!

As promised, here it is, the moustache! I will have the poll up until Saturday at which time the stache's fate will be sealed. It's up to you all to decide! Make your vote count!

Starting to Grow on Me

Before you ask, no I'm not talking about some sort of weird desert fungus. Actually, Guam would be a much more suitable spot for strange growths. Actually, I just mean that I think I'm starting to get used to being here. Yesterday I stepped outside to walk to lunch and thought how glad I was that it wasn't as warm as it had been. It was actually rather pleasant. I got to the chow hall and the thermometer outside said it was 110 degrees. Then this morning I left my trailer to walk to work and thought that it was almost chilly outside. I was glad that I was wearing my long sleeve BDU blouse and trousers. When I got to the squadron, it was no wonder I felt cold. It was barely 90.

I haven't seen a cloud since I stopped in Manila on the way here. That isn't to say that the skies are clear here. Not by any means. There is an ever-present dust cloud that just hangs over everything. Almost like fog. It's always there, just sometimes it's more dense than others. In the evenings when the sun is low in the sky, you can look straight at it because of all the dust blocking it out. That's on a good visibility day. On the low vis days you can't find the sun. Still, I haven't seen any of the giant dust storms this place is famous for. I guess we're getting into the season where they become more plentiful so I'll probably be able to tell you about that eventually.

My entire life here is basically lived in about a 1 km triangle between my trailer and the chow hall and work. The only time I get out of that triangle is when I go fly. I guess I'm lucky to get those breaks. A lot of the people stationed here don't ever go anywhere. Eventually I'll hopefully get put on one of the Bahrain trips which makes for a good time.

Speaking of flying, I did get out flying last night and I can finally say that I am....still not qualled. We got about 20 minutes into our flight and started having problems with the intercom we use to talk to each other on. Usually, it would still be OK but we were flying pretty low and it probably wasn't the safest of things so we stopped and came home early. I guess I'll try again later. I'm supposed to fly again tomorow (I'm on watch today) but that's not for the qual. It's a different training flight. Someday I'll start doing medevac. Maybe then I'll have cooler things to talk about than the food and my hygiene issues.

Laundry Day

I know that the title sounds absolutely enthralling. Unfortunately unlike last night's blog, the title this time does have bearing on the content of this post. There's really not much else to talk about today. I tried to go flying last night, but never got higher than 13 feet off the ground. It was kind of a crazy night. Anyway, I get to try tonight -- again! Hopefully this time I'll be able to actually get it done.

As the title says, I did laundry today. One advantage to everything I own being some shade of brown (except my towel - that's green, but used to be white) is that I don't have to sort laundry. Everything just gets thrown in together. If I was a more philosophical sort, I might be able to draw some parallel between that and life. As it stands, however, that would require too much effort so I'll just say that I toss all the laundry into warm water, add two of my 3-in-1 laundry sheets that I bought out here and let-r-rip. Somehow they all come back and even smell nice. Actually, last week I put them in to the washer before work and came back to find that not only had somebody moved them from the washer to the dryer while I was gone (to free up the washer), but had also started the dryer and then someone else had moved my dry clothes up on top of the dryer for me to free up the dryer. And still, I had all my socks. I can't even do that at home. It's miraculous!..?..mirracoulous!..?..miraculus!..umm..Amazing!

Love In The Desert

Actually, the title has absolutely nothing to do with this post, but I knew it would get your attention. I mean don't get me wrong, LT Schaub is cute and all, but he's not really my type. Anyway, there's not much to write about today. Yesterday was more or lest a day off for me. I was able to go to church. Again, church is interesting when you have to take care to not accidently kick the M-16 of the guy sitting in front of you. It's a fairly small congregation out here. I think that yesterday we had 12 or so. There is our flight doc (a Navy O-5), another O-4 Navy doc, an O-4 Seabee, a couple of Army Infantry Officers (who, by the way just tuck their trousers into their boots as opposed to blousing them. Makes them look like their wearing friggin' moon boots, but I digress), a CWO2 Blackhawk pilot, me, three enlisted Army grunts, and the civilian and his wife that run things. We few. We happy few. We band...oh nevermind.

I had a new experience this last week (and no, this too has nothing to do with my roommate or love in the desert). I was in the chow line and asked for chicken livers (which they have on a weekly basis) and the guy in line behind me muttered "I didn't know they had chicken livers at college." Obviously he was enlisted army. I've heard that some of the enlisted guys could be bitter toward officers, but I had never seen it expressed so openly. I guess being a pilot in the Navy is just a different environment since our mission requires that the entire crew from the senior pilot to the most junior crewman be able to direct the flight if it becomes necessary. So I kindly told him that I didn't have chicken livers in college. I had them at his mother's house. Just kidding. I didn't say anything to him. I just was surprised.

Anyway, tonight I am going to try and fly again. Hopefully I'll finally get myself qualled so I can be put on the alerts. I'll let you know how it goes.

Another Day, Another Watch

Part of the big disadvantage of not having my quals done yet is that I get to sit an unusual amount of these watches. Some of them are more exciting than others. Today was not one of those days.

I did manage to get up flying last night, but unfortunately we had to end the flight early because of some electrical problems so I wasn't able to finish getting qualified. Hopefully that will happen sometime this week. Today we had an all officer meeting where we watched "Team America: World Police". Definitely not a family-friendly flick, but we enjoyed it, nonetheless. It was certainly a more jovial mood than the last Movie AOM we had back on Guam where we watched "Blackhawk Down". That movie was so that we could learn about "interpersonal relationships in times of crisis." I think that the learning objective today was "America's changing roll in a continuosly evolving worldwide political landscape." At least, that's what I pulled out of it.

Entertainment in the Desert

Well, yesterday I was on another exciting 12 hour watch. It actually was pretty exciting because during the twelve hours I was on watch we moved 7 patients from various locations throughout our AO (area of operations). It's a pretty rewarding thing to take part in. I'll fly again tonight and then hopefully will be fully qualified to fly on the medevac missions.

Anyway, after my watch I went through my squadron's collection of DVDs trying to decide what to watch. We have quite the collection, actually. Pretty much every genre you can imagine, from action to comedy to drama. There is even a copy of "Brokeback Mountain" in there, though I'm not sure who would be brave enough to have that movie next to their name on the squadron check-out list. Regardless of how good of a movie it's supposed to be. There are also some pirated movies out here (though not in the squadron's collection). By pirated movies, I don't mean copied DVDs. I mean current films in theaters (people bought them in various places where copywrite laws are not...strictly enforced). Though I don't think that the film industry has much to fear from these. Apparently some of them are just comical in their quality. We're talking the DVD is not a transfer from the film, but a guy with a camcorder sitting in the theater. Right down to people getting up in the middle to go get snacks or whatever. There is a movie theater on base and I think I'll have to go catch a flick their tomorow. Unfortunately, Jeremy, I'm pretty sure Popcorn Penny will not be there (inside joke). As it turned out, it was a moot point since I got a box from Tricia that had the first two seasons of "King of the Hill" in it. Classic stuff. By the way, for those of you wondering what I would like in the desert -- WARNING: SHAMELESS PLUG TO FOLLOW -- I have a wish-list up on Amazon.com. It's under my email address flynavy03@ureach.com

Night Flying

Well, I got to fly again last night. I was flying on NVGs in formation with another helicopter when it occured to me how cool that really is. There I was flying an $18 million piece of machinery over the Persian (or Arabian or whatever) Gulf about 200 yards away from another helicopter. It was a very cool feeling. And I was getting paid for it.

I hope that my posts up to this point haven't been too negative. The truth is, as far as deployments go, this one's not at all bad. The main negative is that I'm away from Tricia and Michenna, which does suck. On the other hand, the food's not bad, I can get online pretty much whenever I want to, I even get to call Tricia once or twice a week. Compared to what the guys up North are going through, I'll take this any day.

Groundhog Day

You know in the Movie Groundhog Day how Bill Murray lives the same day over and over again and much hilarity ensues? I realize now that it really isn't that funny. I think I'm living that out here. OK, so I don't wake up to "I Got You Babe" every day and the fine timekeeping piece on my wrist (Casio $19.95) tells me that the days are progressing, but I'm not sure that I believe it anymore. Of course, the Army does try to do little things to break up the monotony a bit. For instance, on Saturday (or was it Friday?) the power went out for several hours thus ensuring that our cozy air-conditioned trailers reached the triple-digits. And just today the water in my trailer is turned off. Since I flew yesterday I really don't want to imagine how horribly I smell right now. Again, though, I did fly yesterday which is always nice. We accomplished the training that I needed to and then spent some time just flying around the desert having fun. It was a good flight. It did cost me a Coke because I lost a bet that no one who's not a helicopter pilot would understand, but it was well worth the Coke. Tonight I should be flying again. Hopefully by the time I get home the water will be back on. I need to do some laundry. I went to get my flight suit out of the closet today and realized that I hadn't hung it up, it was just standing on its own. Just kidding. Sort of.

I went and got a haircut today. Isn't that exciting? Actually it kind of caught me off guard. The barbers here are Kuwaiti. The haircut was nice and then he finished off and started massaging my shoulders. I guess that's just part of the haircut here. Nice, yes, but unexpected. At first I thought he was just hitting me in the back of the neck. Good thing I resisted the urge to use my highly honed kung-fu skills on him, eh?

Speaking of hygiene, I have to admit that I jumped on the pilot bandwagon out here and grew a mustache. I promise that I'll get pictures up here as soon as I can. We'll take a vote. Granted, Tricia's vote pretty much trumps all. I'm waiting a bit until it gets a bit thicker. Right now I just look like a creepy pedophile. No, you can't get pictures of Spencer the creepy pedophile. Requests will be returned along with my collection of photos documenting the progression of the smallpox vaccine sore on my arm.

Shooting in the Desert

Yesterday we went out to the range and shot off our M-16s. It's a little different shooting out here than elsewhere. You see, Kuwait is in many ways a modern society. Large cities, computers, satellite television, the works. In other ways, however, the culture here has remained mostly untouched for centuries. When we fly around, I still see caravans of camels using centuries-old trails through the desert. Sometimes even within spitting distance of modern paved roads. Also scattered throughout the desert are nomad camps of camel and sheep herders. Yesterday, we had to change our firing range because there was a nomadic camp downrange of where we were supposed to be shooting. So we moved over to a new range and had to wait as a camel herder moved his camels right through the middle of the range. I guess that they've been herding camels through that area a lot longer than we've been shooting there.

It was also very, very hot. No air-conditioned buildings out there. Just big pavilion-style sunshades. I know that I lived in St. George, Utah for a while and I thought that was desert. It gets well into the triple-digits during the summer and it is mostly dry. I hadn't seen anything. Yesterday was the first time I can remember that things I left in the shade became hot to the touch. When we went to actually shoot, that was out in the sun and the rifles were almost unbearably hot. One other thing I learned yesterday is that I'm not a huge fan of automatic weapons. Maybe I'm not red-blooded enough, but I really didn't get anything out of shooting the M-16 on full auto. Except maybe a sore shoulder. I love shooting it in semi-auto.

Got to go up flying again today. That always makes for a great day. I can't stress enough how different the climate is here. In a lot of ways it is like living on the moon. Case in point: on the moon there are footprints and such left over from the first astronauts in 1969, right? Well here there are still tank pits (areas dug into the earth to use to conceal a tank) that the Iraqis dug during the first gulf war in 1990. They still look much the same as they did back then (minus the tanks, of course). These are not concrete reinforced structures or anything, just holes dug into the ground that slope up on one side to aim the turret. It's kind of cool.

I'm getting ready to go to dinner now. I'm not sure what's on tonight's menu. This afternoon they had bacon-cheeseburgers for lunch. I found myself wondering if that presents a dilema to the locals who work in the chow hall since Muslims do not eat pork and consider anything to do with pork to be unclean. Maybe they don't tell them or maybe it was turkey bacon or something. Or maybe it was real bacon and they just told the guys it was turkey. How would they know? OK, so that might, just might be considered unethical in some circles. Maybe.

Another Day, Another Watch

I think I need to find a different way to refer to this place. Camp Beuhring just sounds too formal (besides it makes me think of President Martin van Burin who has nothing to do with the name). Calling it "a really hot, sandy place in the middle of nowhere in the Arabian desert" is kind of redundant and way too long to type. So I think I'll just call it Happyland!. Anyway, life here in Happyland! is not too bad. I already mentioned the food so I won't go into that more.

I went to church on Sunday. It was strange to be in a church service with only about 10 other people. Especially when 2/3 of them are armed. I have to say that if they did it that way back in the states, you would have a much smaller noise problem. Sunday best dress here is pretty much the same as everyday best dress. Since I had to go fly right after the service I was in my flightsuit. Not really fancy, but I'm pretty sure that God understands. You see, on any given day you can find me wearing either my flight suit if I'm going to be flying or my camoflauge BDUs (or DCUs as the Navy calls them) if not. The only other outfit I even have out here is one pair of jeans and a polo shirt. So my wardrobe is certainly not what you might call "varied".

All things considered, though, I really can't complain about Happyland!. Yeah it gets hot, but all of the buildings have air conditioning so it's not really like I'm out in the heat all day. We also have pretty free access to computers when we need it and I can even use the phone to call Tricia every once-in-a-while. Not a bad gig at all. I appreciate the comments and emails from everybody. I try to get back to them when I can. Looks like this is shaping up to be one heck of an adventure.

A Few Pictures

Well, as promised, I have gotten a few pictures ready to be posted. Finally. I can't say that they're the most exciting pictures ever, but since the most exciting thing to happen here is the big smallpox vaccine sore growing on my shoulder (Quit the sight, actually. I also have pictures of that, but I'll avoid posting them here) there isn't a whole lot to post. I'll have more up as they become available.

Here I am in the Abu Dhabi Airport. Don't let the smile fool you. I had been up for about 26 hours at that point and am probably pretty lucky that I didn't accidently take a header right over that railing.

My little home away from home. It was sure nice of the Army to give us a television that is hooked up to neither satellite or a DVD player. Good thing I brought my laptop. By the way, that refrigerator is stocked from top to bottom with bottled water. That, thankfully is free and more than abundantly available.

The other part of my room. Isn't it exciting? Actually just up and to the left of the frame is the most important feature of the room: the A/C which keeps the room at about 70 degrees even when it's 130 outside. In retrospect, I guess I could have at least tucked in the corners of my sheet before I took this picture...

I know, I know. This is what you've all been breathlessly anticipating seeing. The helicopters. To be fair, I'm not flying the helicopter in this picture. I was flying the helicopter that this photo was taken from. Notice the red cross on the side. Beautiful birds, ain't they?

Independence Day

Well, here I sit on the Fourth of July. I find myself pondering freedom and the general blessing that is living in the U.S.A. This is easy to do since I also find myself sitting behind a desk on a twelve-hour watch.

The other day, we had a Syrian instructor come in to teach us about Arabian and Islamic culture. I have to admit that I was one of those ignorant Americans who never made a distinction between Arab and Muslim. Turns out that there is, but that's a subject for another time. The part of the brief that really got to me was when he talked about his time at the begining of OIF when he worked as a translator for some American Special Ops units in Iraq. The question he says that he continuously had to translate was "Why did you leave us in 1991?" I only hope that this time we can stay the course long enough to give these guys a fighting chance at real freedom.

I know that sometimes it can be seen as hokie, but I truly believe that the U.S. is the greatest nation on the face of the planet. I believe that liberty is the single greatest human need on earth. Food, water, even love can only be partial joys if one is not allowed the liberty to enjoy them. Unfortunately, throughout history there have been many men who have believed that freedom is a benefit that they and their closest allies should enjoy at the cost of all others. When this happens it becomes necessary for men who would much rather be living their lives in peace surrounded by family and friends to take up arms, say goodbye to loved ones, and become warriors. Not all of them will return home. Such is the cost of freedom and it will never be reduced.

I am here because I truly believe in what we are doing. I became a helicopter pilot specifically because I wanted the opportunity to pull somebody out of a bad situation to give them a chance to get back home. Sure, there are dangers involved in that mission, but that's part of the job. I pray everyday that nobody will get hurt; but if they do, then God willing I want to be there to help. So tonight as you drink in good times with friends and family, take just a moment to remember your fellow Americans who are not there with you because they are currently deployed in the cause of freedom. Take two moments for those who will never come back.

Kuwait As I See It From The Air

Well, yesterday I got to fly down to Kuwait City in the daylight. That was pretty cool. We took basically the same loop that I did on Sunday, only this time I could see everything around me. Kuwait City looks a lot like most other big cities I've been to in the U.S. with a couple of differences.

First, everything is brown. They had parks with playgrounds and benches and such but no grass would grow out here so the ground is just dirt. The only green that was to be seen came in the form of some bushes and trees that people had planted.

Second, there do not seem to be any single-family dwelling neighborhoods. None. Every residential area that I saw was made up of apartment buildings. Some of them were quite nice, and others weren't, but nowhere did I see what looked like what we Americans think of as regular houses. The apartment buildings here seem to follow the style I saw in Bolivia quite a bit. That is, they were multi-story buildings built around a central courtyard. Some of the nicer ones had fountains in the middle of the courtyard. Out in the northern desert I saw a couple of very large...I guess the closest thing I can think of is a ranch...where there was a very large house and then a couple of acres of beautifully landscaped land. One of the properties we flew over had about 3 acres covered in what appeared to be very plush grass and a little man-made pond in the middle. The entire area was surrounded by walkways and there was even a little island in the pond that had a gazebo on it. It was gorgeous! Especially since it was surrounded by some of the most barren desert you can imagine.

In my opinion, Kuwait City is a lot like most other cities I've seen in that I prefer it at night. There's something almost mystical about a city when the lights come on. Everything sparkles. The ugly scars that civilization leaves behind are mostly invisible. Look at pretty much any city and you'll see the same thing. No matter how beautiful it is during the day, it gets even prettier at night.

Flying in Kuwait

Well, last Saturday I had my first flight in Kuwait. We flew up to the north near the Iraqi border. Pretty much all my flights for now will be training flights until I get my quals. Then I will start to stand the duty and actually be flying Medevac missions. To be honest, there really isn't a whole lot to see up north. There is a huge ditch that runs along the entire length of the Kuwaiti border about 5 km inside Kuwait. Other than that, I saw a whole bunch of sand and rocks. We did some landings into unprepared areas which is actually a lot of fun. At one point, we realized that the unprepared area we were landing in was actually full of trash and kicked up pieces of plywood about the size of small cars when we touched down. One of them even broke our wind screen. Then it got dark so we put on Night Vision Goggles and it got even more boring. Now instead of brown sand, it was green. Yeah!

Last night we flew over Kuwait City. That was pretty cool. We have to be careful not to overfly mosques (sp?) because they tend to get a bit perterbed. That was a lot better than flying north because there was actually something to see. A lot of Kuwaitis put Christmas lights on their houses year round. I'm not talking little strands of light, I mean the entire house covered with white lights (think "National Lampoons' Christmas Vacation") . From the air it was quite a sight. I'll be flying down there again today in the daylight. I'll let you know how that goes in my next update.

Welcome to Camp Beuhring

So we arrived in Kuwait at about 3 AM. We were met there by a couple of guys from the squadron who then drove us to Camp Beuhring. It took about 1 1/2 hours to drive here. Camp Beuhring is actually not that bad of a place. My room is basically a trailer that has been divided into two equal halves with a bathroom in the middle which is shared among the four guys that live in the trailer. We're actually really lucky compared to other waves that have come out here before us in that our trailers have showers and bathrooms. I guess before they had to go to central facilities to do all that. My roommate is another pilot named Aaron Schaub from Nacagdoches, TX. There is a giant Texas flag on the wall of our trailer. Tricia would be so proud.

The only way to get around here is on foot. Everywhere. I probably walk about 5 to 10 km per day. Somebody told me that to prepare for Kuwait, I should stand in front of my hair dryer at home for about an hour a day. They were close. The other thing they forgot was that you need to add sand to the hot air. Lots and lots of sand.

As most people know, I enjoy really good food about as much as the next guy. Unfortunately here we don't have really good food. We do, however, have decent food and lots of it. The chow hall serves a lunch and dinner menu that rotates weekly and is all you can eat. There is a fresh salad bar, fruit, soft drinks, milk, even ice cream bars. I certainly can't complain.

The base PX (store) is a lot like a really small Wal*Mart. It has most everything for sale, including a lot of stuff that I can't imagine anyone wanting to buy out here. In addition to the PX there is also a Burger King, Taco Bell, Great American Steak and Potato, Nathan's Hotdogs, and even a Starbucks.

ARRIVING IN COUNTRY

We flew out to Kuwait on June 26. Long, long flight. We flew Continental from Guam to Manila, Phillipines. We had about 6 hours in the Manila airport. Not as bad as it sounds, actually. You see, in Manila you can go to a connecting flights lounge and pay about 8 bucks for a little room to sleep in, a place to connect your computer, even little sandwiches and free drinks. If you're so inclined you can even get an hour massage for about $20.

Then we flew to Abu Dhabi, UAE on Etihad Airways (the official airline of the United Arab Emirates). It is important to remember that the UAE is the wealthiest Arab nation in the world. It certainly showed in their airline. The aircraft was a new Boeing 777-300 with seatback televisions in every class and good food. During that 8 1/2 hour flight I was able to watch four movies:

1. The Shooter - an entirely forgetable Mark Wahlberg production in which he plays a Marine Sniper who is accused of trying to assassinate the president. Not really thrilling or suspensful. Just dumb and political.

2. Wild Hogs - I must admit that I was surprised by this little flick starring Tim Allen, John Travolta, William H. Macy, and Martin Lawrence. It was a bit hokie at times, but certainly had some funny moments and would be well worth renting.

3. The Number 23 - Jim Carrey. One of those "So what?" movies. Not really great, not really bad. Decent way to kill a couple of hours over the Indian Ocean, I guess.

4. The Grudge 2 - This is a modern precautionary tail in which we learn that, no matter how much fun it may seem like at the time, DO NOT GO INTO THE SCARY HOUSE WHERE PEOPLE WERE GRUSOMELY KILLED. In all fairness, I never saw the first one or its Japanese counterpart "The Gludge". Maybe if I see that, I'll understand a bit more.

Sorry about that. I guess long story short, Etihad Airways was quite impressive. Abu Dhabi airport was pretty cool as well. I will post a picture of it later. We also had 6 hours there, which unfortunately was more like a normal airport (other than the fact that it looked like a Vegas casino). Then we flew to the main event - Kuwait.